The
philosopher, mystic and writer Jacques de Marquette (1888-1968, and you can read about him: https://pedroteixeiradamota.blogspot.com/2023/07/jacques-de-marquette-pioneer-of.html ; https://pedroteixeiradamota.blogspot.com/2022/09/jacques-de-marquette-um-dentista-e.html), was initiated
by the famous professor of philosophy the gurudev Ranade, in Nimbal Ashram, in Belgaum, in his fortnight stay in 1954, but
having met him already in 1930-31, in Allahabad University. Or after that inner initiatic connection Marquette increased in the
following years his writings on Indian spirituality and shared
also some appreciations about his master Ranade that are worthwhile to be read.
For
example, in 1957 he gives to the light his translation of one of his guru's
book, with an introduction, entitled La
Spiritualité dans l'oeuvre de Gandhi.
In
January 1958 he publishes De l'Âme a l'Esprit, the full title
being From Soul to the Spirit or the ascension to the
eternal life, by the Yogis of India, the Buddhists and the
Judeo-Christians Traditions, in which he writes «in memory of A. K.
Coomaraswamy, Paul Masson-Oursel, and R. D. Ranade, in affectionate
gratitude», joining the three famous orientalists, strong knowers of Sanatana Dharma and Philosophia Perenis, who inspired or guided him.
And
in the last trimester of 1959 Jacques de Marquette publishes in
Paris the book Panharmony, from Life to Eternity by a Rational
Spirituality through the Religions, the Human Sciences and the
Philosophies, in-4º of 239
pages, a work to awaken people to their mission of creating spiritual
values and a moral Person, and tread the right way of live, for which
he describes Mankind's evolution from primitive times to historical
ones, admiting even the old civilization of Atlantis, and then adding the most important teachings
from the main religions and philosophies, with good parallels or
correspondences between them, on God, Man and the World, with his
planes or levels, where in a curious footnote recomends his
book Confessions of a Contemporanean Mystic and
the Time and Eternity of
Ananda Coomaraswamy, as very
good sources for understanding the seven planes or levels of the
Universe. In others chapters
he writes about the escathological and scientific views, the
converging and ascending paths, the present situation, sometimes
seeming a bit schematic in the correspondences and
influenciated by theosophical and christian conceptions.
It
is in the Introduction that
he mentions three times gurudev Ranade, after speaking about the
eternal value of religions and his own individual and communitarian
strong experiences: «Hinduism,
despite its spiritual fundamental monism, describes three attitudes
of mind towards life, and
if the three can be sublimated by an aspiration to the supreme
harmony with the source of Life, they can lead the individual to the
ultimate contemplation. These three paths are the spiritual love, or
infinite sublimation of the emotions primitively directed to humans;
the wisdom or sublimation of the knowdlege of objects in the one of
causes and their transcendent objectives; and the heroic sacrifice or
sublimation of the egoistical and interested action, in impersonal
service of the Universal life. Ramakrishna was in our time the ideal
prototype of the Union realized by love or Bhakti Yoga. Gandhi and
Vinoba with their lives heroically altruists were Karma Yogins good
examples relaizing the Union by the desinterested action; while
Aurobindo Ghose, Coomaraswamy and the professor Ranade have been the
great Jnana Yogis of our time». So, aswe can see Jacques de Marquette exalts sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to a realized being on the path of devotion or love, the bhakti marga; then Gandhi and his sucessor Vinoba (that I met in his ashram of Varda) as the great examples of the path of karma yoga, desinterested action in service (seva) of others and Mankind, and to finnish he gives three important philosophers as examples of the path of knowdlege or wisdom, the Jnana marga, Sri Aurobindo, from Pondichery, Ananda Coomaraswamy from the Museum of Boston, and gurudev Ranade, from Nmbal Ashram
And
five pages after, Marquette writes another time about the value of professor Ranade:«On the other hand, we have
been able to make extended stays among the followers of most of the
major religions, ranging from the humblest forms such as the
totemists of the New Hebrides and the animist Santals of Bengal to
the Ashram of Professor Ranade, the greatest Jnani Yogi of our time,
passing through the magnificent movements of Catholic and Protestant
youth, the heroic simplicity of Adventist missionaries, the admirable
Quakers of the Midlands and Pennsylvania, the Buddhist Viharas of
Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, the Zen monasteries of Kamakura and
Kyoto, the lamaseries of Little Tibet, the subtle and serene peace of
the Mosques of Djokja, Penang, Delhi, Agra, Lahore, Baghdad,
Damascus, Fez and Moulay Idris; as well as the fervor of the Kibbuz
of Yavne and other high places of Israel, not to mention the closed
Hindu circles, of which our quality as an accepted disciple of
Professor Ranad opened access to us.» We can add that would be very interesting one day to know
more about these hermetic circles that we may guess just as small groups of Ranade's disciples scattered in India...
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The mandir and Nimbal ashram of Gurudev Ranade at Belgaum, still open to spiritual seekers.
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Lastly,
at page 19, after describing some of his soft spiritual feelings at
different religious ambiances, the last one in a christian chapel in
Nazareth, he writes about two ashrams or spiritual centers in India: «Candor,
transparency, light and lively joy of this privileged place. Parallel
evocation of the spiritual presences of the atmosphere so richly
joyful, harmonious and regulated of the ashram of the “Mother” in
Pondichery, and of the prodigious flights of subtle lightness and
transparent plenitude in the shadow of the Ashram of the Gurudeo
Ranade at the sacred hours where the night opens to the first
transcendent impulses announcing the approaching awakening of nature
under the golden and burning kisses of Surya, the Hindu Apollo», indeed a beautiful description of the meditation at dawn in the auspicious brahma muhurti hours, either from 3.30 to 5.30, either from 4.53 to 6.00...
It is a pity that Jacques de Marquette and Gurudev Ranade are not so well known as they merit...
